Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Poet-memoirist Holm grew up on the tall-grass prairie, but his heart lies on the edge of the ocean in Iceland. Even as a child, he dreamed of the sea, and so to become a middle-aged Minnesotan and buy property in a place in Iceland called Brimnes on the shore of a fjord, no less was the fulfillment of a lifetime of longing delivered. The world he sees from the window of the small fisherman's cottage he inhabits there, mostly in summer but sometimes in winter, he deeply admires. He loves Iceland's tradition of pacifism; the Icelandic love of nature, poetry, and music; and especially, Icelanders' unforced sense of community, which they call sveit, and which Holm wonders whether Americans may ever fully comprehend. In Brimnes, neighbors know not only one another's names, but also the history of the houses each other lives in. Holm contrasts Iceland with an America he increasingly has difficulty recognizing, an America that has betrayed long-held ideals of liberty and freedom. Americans, he laments, feel loyalty to their companies and employers rather than to their neighbors and land. As in his other writing, Holm's voice is inimitable often prickly, always defiantly idiosyncratic, whether describing the otherworldly landscape he sees through the window or commenting on everything from genealogy to the difficulties of the Icelandic language. A pleasure to read and ponder.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Poet and essayist Holm (English, Southwest St. Univ., MN; Eccentric Islands: Travels Real and Imaginary) has written an insightful, often humorous, and occasionally melancholy follow-up to The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth, his book on growing up in an Icelandic community in Minneota, MN. Here he explores the country of his ancestors, its rich literary heritage, and the hardscrabble history that drove many Icelanders to the New World. At the same time, he casts a critical eye on life, politics, and religion in the United States. Brimnes, his tiny, isolated cottage only yards from the sea, with no phone or computer, provides a haven in the tradition of Thoreau's Walden Pond and a vantage point from which to view the modern world, which has begun to encroach on his beloved Iceland. Holm's wonderfully clear prose brings to life the dramatic landscape of Iceland and its friendly and independent people. Poems by him and others, including translations of works by Icelandic poets, are sprinkled throughout the text. Holm has produced an enjoyable book that belongs in all public and academic library collections.-Linda M. Kaufmann, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts Lib., North Adams (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
